Netgear DG834G 54Mbps Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Firewall Router with 4-port 10/100 switch

Very easy to set up - I printed out 19 pages of instructions on setting up a router from my ISP's website, but the Netgear DG834G configured itself in a few seconds! All I had to do was plug all the connections in, install the setup software and drivers from the accompanying CD, and type in my ISP user name and password.

I also bought a Netgear WG511 wi-fi card for my wife's laptop, and that was even easier to set up - it automatically detected the wireless connection and set itself up. Transmission speeds are consistently 100% (54mbps) from anywhere in the house.

The only problem I had was caused by a new digital cordless phone set that I stupidly installed the same day. A phone call would crash the ADSL modem in the DG834G, but an additional microfilter solved the problem.

Once you're up and running, I'd definitely recommend changing the router setup password, restricting connections by MAC address, changing the routers SSID name, and preventing it from broadcasting it's SSID name - all very easy to do with the setup utility. If you're worried about sensitive data being transmitted, invoke the 128 bit WEP encryption too.

I'd go as far as saying that the Netgear DG834G can avert a divorce - now that we can share our ADSL connection wirelessly!

Just a word to praise Amazon also - I ordered a lot of kit over the Christmas/New Year period on the Free delivery offer, and all of it arrived within 2 working days of my orders.


Setup in minutes   August 23, 2004
87 out of 89 found this review helpful

I do not see why people are saying this is hard to setup. I bought this to replace my Speedtouch 330 USB modem and to be able to network computers a lot easier.

I bought this along with a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA card, a few months ago and I have had no problems. The router did become faulty, but Netgear replaced it free of charge under the 90 day warranty.

I have BT Yahoo! Broadband with 2 PC's and my Xbox (for Xbox Live) connecting via wired connections to it, and a laptop on wireless.

I would say that within 10 minutes all was up and running. And te longest process of the setup was installing the drivers and software for the laptop.

All you need to do for wired connections is configure your ethernet card to TCP/IP (don't worry, this is a lot more straight forward than you might think).

1) For a computer running on Windows XP you need to open up the network connections and right click on the connection that you are connecting through.
2) Right click on this and select proporties, and then slect Internet ProtocolTCP/IP from the list, and proporties of this.
3) in the window that opens, you want to make sure that both IP and DNS are set to automatic.
4) Apply all the settings and you should be able to connect to the router.
5) Open internet explorer and type in the address bar http://192.168.0.1 Then type in the defualt username: admin and password: passsword to enter the router setup.
6) The router will now be able to automatically detect your internet settings and all that is required is to enter your username and password for your internet service and the rest is done.
7) When it has done this, click connect and you will be able to access the internet.

If you require wireless, this is enabled by default, so any wireless card should be able to detect your network.

I hope this helps anyone with any problems, the setup leaflet provided outlines most of this as well.

Believe me, this process will take no more than 5 mins and you will be on the internet a lot quicker than you thought.

As I mentioned before, i use this router for Xbox Live, so anyone wanting this for Live go for it. I have never had a single problem with it, once you have set it up, you plug in your xbox and it will connect instantly.

On a final note, those that are experiencing problems with this, AOL broadband is known for being difficult to work with and network. My recommendation would either be BT Yahoo! Broadband because of the good costomer support and recent price drops however be aware that for heavy users, as of sometime in 2005, BT are introducing bandwidth capping of 15gb/month for the 512kb service and 30GB/month for the 1mb service. For the average user however, this should not pose any problems.

Hope this helped!!


Exceptional features, low cost.   December 11, 2003
J. M. Gledhill (Scotland)
50 out of 52 found this review helpful

The Netgear DM834G Wireless ADSL Router combines an ADSL Modem, Broadband Router, Four Port Network Switch and a 802.11g (54mbs) Wireless Access Point all in one unit!

Or simply put, plug this into your ADSL enabled broadband line, enter a few settings, then either access the internet over a standard "wired" ethernet connection or sit in the garden with your laptop and surf amazon over the fast 54mbs wireless connection.

The unit is a breeze to set up, plug it into a power socket and telephone line, access the settings page and follow the instructions of the helpful easy setup wizard and within minutes its all done. Coupled with this ease of setup, the DG834G has some advanced features. It has a hardware firewall and can filter websites with offensive content by keywords or URL address.

The router also has more advanced features for those who need them, it supports Port Forwarding, Static Routing and DMZ modes.

The unit itself is quite attractive, its about 20cm long, 15 wide and 3cm thick with an aluminium style look.

The wireless performance of the DG834G is excellent, it works through several walls, plasterboard and brick and seems to connect fine with several major brands of wireless network adapters.

So if you're looking to share your broadband connection with more than one computer, using a combination of ethernet and wireless networking, you couldn't get a router with more features for the price.

Highly reccomended...


Fantastic piece of kit   February 11, 2004
Keith (Midlands)
49 out of 51 found this review helpful

I was using a speedtouch 330 adsl modem supplied by my ISP for about 7 months before deciding to use a ADSL modem router that included wireless technology so that I could network all the computers in the house without the mess of cables. Although I haven't been using this Netgear DG834G for very long, I have to say that I was totally amazed at how quick it was to set up and use, I should have bought one ages ago. I have connected it to the Ethernet port on my main computer and my ADSL which is now always on is so much faster and made a big differece to the speed. The speedtouch was connected through a USB port wich is obviously much slower. I purchased a 802.11g pcmcia card for my laptop, again so simple to set up and it can be used for email and surfing the internet anywhere in my house. I am now going to buy a wireless pci card for another desktop that I have and wirelessly link that to the router aswell. I have not personally tried any other makes and would suggest that they also probably work well but I have no regrets in buying Netgear although I could have had alternatives a fair bit cheaper.


Fast, powerful, attractive, expensive   August 21, 2004
johnx760
45 out of 47 found this review helpful

If you want to set up a home network and share broadband, you need a wireless router with modem. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will usually supply a free modem, but to share your connection you would need one computer permanently switched on and the connection would be shared very inefficiently.

The Netgear is easy to install - it detected all the required settings automatically (i.e. the broadband protocol used in the UK is PPPoA, my ISP uses dynamic IP addresses). Type in your ISP login name and password and you're good to go. If you use BT broadband, remember that you won't have a password, so leave that blank.
The configuration interface is fairly easy to use, and there's plenty of extra options if you want to tweak settings.

Connection speeds are good and get very near to the maximum. Wireless signal strength is also very strong, reaching a stated 54Mbps in every room in the house (although actual data transfer rates will not be this high). Remember that you can connect up to 4 computers with Ethernet cable to the router as well as many more wirelessly. To connect with cable, your computer will need an Ethernet port, and to connect wirelessly you will need a wireless adapter. Very new computers might have one or both of these built-in.

The Netgear really shines in terms of security features. It has a standard Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall to protect you from hackers, as well as the extremely useful Network Address Translation (NAT) which 'hides' your network behind a single IP address on the Internet. It also supports up to 128-bit Wired Equivalence Privacy (WEP) as well as newer Wi-fi Protected Access (WPA) to protect your wireless signals from interception, which are really more important to business users than at home.

The only gripe is that the router doesn't like to connect adapters made by other companies, and will drop its wireless data transfer speed quite readily. Having said that, even if it drops by half, the transfer speed will still be 50 times faster than your average (512kbps) broadband connection and so your Internet connection will not suffer at all. The Netgear does also occasionally drop its signal, but this happens with all routers and from my experience the Netgear does this less than most makes.

Finally, it is by far the most attractive Wireless Router out there. The slim ivory case will sit comfortably in any room, not just the office, and it is very small. The router is good value for money, but you might find that buying Netgear adapters for your computers is expensive, because those do tend to cost quite a bit more than competitor products.